Low-Cost Multi-Touch Whiteboard

The interactive whiteboard is fast becoming part and parcel of the classroom. As usual the student who wants to learn and practice at home is at crossroads. He would like to practice what he/she sees at school but the high prices of an interactive whiteboard plus the software, are not student friendly!

We always insist that the lesson in a class is not enough. Some students need extra time in order to master the lesson. Besides, with the noise, interruptions etc. in a class, some students would like to revise the lesson in the quiet and peaceful settings of their own house.

Another important point is that the new format of the lesson is fast changing. The lesson is being done at home whilst the time in class could be devoted to personal questions and problems. Now if we wish to make this come true, one has to think of how to bring the interactive board to each student.

Today, proudly we are presenting a low-cost multi-touch Whiteboard. Besides the physical aspect of the challenge, we presenting the software too. Now in this regard it is very important to have open source software as these technological gadgets are changing practically every day. In a closed source software, one has to wait for the company (if they'll accept the challenge after all), to do the necessary changes. In the open source environment, one can change the program himself/herself. It is available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux OS.

Low-Cost Multi-Touch Whiteboard

Open software for interactive white boards

Open Culture

People expect to have a good service or product at a price. In other words, something free should not be of high quality. Well that's because money has changed our lives so much, that we expect to pay and be paid for any services or products provided.

Have a look at what your parents did for you. Can you equate their work with a sum of money? Does it mean that because it was freely given, it was of a low quality?

Now there are people in society who would like to share their work for free. This happens for various reasons especially when it comes to education. Maybe they believe that some works of art, projects etc. should be shared as they belong to the world's heritage. Others believe that if we start sharing, other people might join the group and share as well. In the end everybody will be a winner.

Imagine if one does a wonderful project. He or she puts all his/her ideas. They are the ideas of just one single person. Each and every person is gifted. On the other hand, each and every person is limited. Now imagine if he/she makes it open for all. Another person comes in and adds more ideas. Most often it's not just one person who joins the group. There would be hundreds or thousands! Look at how many wonderful ideas there are now compared to the original project where only one person put the ideas! It is the philosophy of the more, the merrier!

Today we wish to share a web-page which has thousands of links to other pages where people can access for free, several educational pages or courses. They are all free. There are so many subjects covered that it's very difficult to give a summary of all of them. Just click on the link and enjoy!

Open Teacher

It is a small program which helps teacher revise some concepts, ideas, vocabulary or past lessons done with students. It helps students to revise their lessons too! It could be used by both of them. The questions could be asked in a random manner so it would discourage anybody from knowing beforehand the following question!

If you want to download a copy just click here, for tutorials to overcome the initial fear of trying a new program, click here. FAQ (Frequently asked questions) section, just click here. If you're interested to see how others view the program than go here. Another opinion is found here.

The advantages of the program are several. It can read several formats of files (29). One can create a topography or media lesson. One can create a lesson from a picture, any other file or from the internet! There is typing tutor where both teachers and students could improve their speed of writing in a computer file. It could be installed on windows, mac and linux operating systems. 

 

Calibre : Reading, writing and changing ebooks

Teachers and students have a common tool: books. Does it mean that although we use computers/tablets/mobile phones we are going to throw away books? Surely NOT. Today we are lucky to have a bigger choice. No one is against reading books the old way (ie tangible one where one flips pages with his own hands).

Nowadays we have more choice in the sense we can download books unto our electronic gadget without the need to go outside to a library or shop to buy it. Some students coming from poor families or families who don't wish to spend their money on educational books, now can download some books for free! One can visit the guthenberg site in order to find around 48,000 FREE e-books. No student can claim that all books are boring. Having such a big online library, there is at least one good book for everybody!

We can change the format of the letters (for dyslesic, or students with a poor eye sight). We can change the format to fit our electronic gadget (mobile phone, pc or tablet). One can write on the book. In fact some teachers use it to let students comment when reading a book. At the end the teacher has the comments of all students on one book! This was not possible on physical books as it was heavily prohibited to write on books. Students can see comments made by other students. Peer to peer learning is another wonderful tool for students made possible by electronic books.

Another hidden advantage is that teachers nowadays can have a proof if students have opened or not the books because each comment will have a time date! This was surely not possible with the old system!

The biggest advantage is surely the fact that when we read educational books we meet new, strange or undecipherable words. In the old times, we had either to guess the meaning from the general sense of the sentence or else go for another book....dictionary. Now one needs to press the word and up comes the definition!! It's that simple. Now books have become easier.

Our aim today is to introduce another wonderful free source program which can be used in windows, mac, android or linux! It's called calibre. It has all the features mentioned above and more.

As usual we are providing some tutorials in case our readers have some teething problems.

Tutorial 1 (FAQ)

Tutorial 2 (video)

Tutorial (for android)

Tutorial 3 (news feeds)

Open Street Map

All people do look for a particular place, address or a historical building. How do you go from point A to point B? Teachers and students too need a map from time to time. Teachers would like to teach their students some practical hints how to find a place in a short time. What program do they need to use?  

As usual we go for open source programs where students and teachers can change. That's the beauty of open source! We are providing some quick help in order to master the program which should be quite easy. There are places where one can influence the program especially when it comes to jotting down some interesting places! Please do contribute with ideas in order to make it better! See the links below: 

http://developer.mapquest.com/web/products/open/tools/guide

beginner's guide, all written down.

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Beginners%27_guide

if you want to start an account and contribute to the openstreetmap and how to collect and edit data.

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Video_tutorials

lots of new concepts for everybody

  

video tutorial 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JVZYrniVXw

video tutorial 2

http://showmedo.com/videotutorials/video?name=1800000&fromSeriesID=180

Editing PDF files

Most teachers and students use pdf documents. Teachers do share and download important files as pdf. What's a pdf file? It's a portable document file. Some teachers like it because the student receives it as it is. Other formats may change when the student opens them on his electronic device, especially changing from a pc to mobile gadgets!

On the other hand, what can a teacher do when he/she has a pdf file but wishes to do some changes? Teachers do editing all the time as they see the students' reaction to their personalised notes. They may change some words or phrases or re-write the file completely.

Today we present Master PDF editor. Teachers and students need it especially when presenting some important information and at the last minute they see some mistakes or wish to change some parts of it.

Master PDF editor is available for Mac, Windows and Linux operating systems. In other words it's cross-platform. If one prefers YouTube tutorials than one must visit this link. Others might prefer the official manual of the program. 

 

Recording and interviewing students or other people

Owing to family health problems I had to delay my update of my blog by three days. Well here I am. Talking and recording one's voice is so important in class. Students would like to hear their own voices. They would like to record important interviews, some important dialogues. Teachers too would like to record some basic instructions for students.

As usual, both teachers and students would like something to use which is super easy to use and which is free. We present audacity. If you need to download it press here.

On the internet, when one wishes to master a program, we look for a tutorial. Here are some tutorials: YouTube tutorials; Other tutorials and written tutorials. If you are not completely satisfied, you can always google for more information on the internet. But the best tutorial is you when you start practising and learning by committing some mistakes!!